Met Fresh Supermarket
Opened: February 20, 2026
Owner: Danny Hamdan
New York City has a lot of laws. But one that must be on the books somewhere, although I can't seem to find when City Council passed it, is that every time a drugstore closes in the city, it must be replaced by a supermarket. I've stopped even trying to keep count of how many new supermarkets have opened up in former drugstores, and in fact I'm running out of ways to introduce these posts because they've been so frequent (and yeah, we're really on the bottom of the barrel comedy material here. Bear with me, I'm tired).
Okay, regaining focus here: what's not bottom-of-the-barrel in any way is the stunning new Met Fresh Supermarket in Two Bridges, in far Lower Manhattan. And when I say far Lower Manhattan, I mean 1300 feet to the East River, I mean we're closer to Downtown Brooklyn than Times Square. Yes, this was a Rite Aid for a long time, but before that it was actually a Bohack supermarket. Bohack was here until at least the 70s.
This isn't a large store -- it totals just 9500 square feet -- but it's larger than its most direct competitor, a SuperFresh right across the street. A 25,000 square foot Brooklyn Fare dwarfs both, but that's much farther away.
This Met Fresh is decidedly more upscale than both -- that is the most mainstream Brooklyn Fare, and clearly angled more towards general grocery than specialty foods as their other locations are -- and the presentation is really impressive here.
In terms of both presentation and setup, this store is somewhat similar to the new Dumbo Market locations. Well, that makes sense: this store's owner, Danny Hamdan, is a cousin of the Mujallis who own Dumbo Market and Urban Market. The Mujallis' stores are Key Food-affiliated, while Hamdan's are ASG. Hamdan's sister also owns a Met Fresh. It's a family business!
This is just the latest in a series of top-notch new stores from ASG. You can see some of them here.
The selection here is enormous considering the tiny footprint -- heck, in the suburbs, you'd barely think twice about seeing a store ten times this size.
And almost nothing inside is left over from Rite Aid (that's not always the case!) except perhaps the ceiling. Here's a glimpse inside the Rite Aid.
There's no service bakery counter, and not all the baked goods sold here are made in-store. But I spotted fresh pastries, muffins, and a few other freshly baked items. That's highly unusual for NYC supermarkets, most of which don't have dedicated bakery departments, much less in-store bakeries.
But remember that this store is very, very small, and every inch has to be used. So the bakery department here is mostly in this tiny dead-end corner behind the deli counter.
And the meat department is on the back wall behind the deli.
The grocery aisles are complete and upscale, with basics alongside abundant higher-end choices. This area has a mix of very affluent and working-class residents, so I think there's a bit of an attempt to cater to everybody's needs. The SuperFresh across the street is decidedly not upscale, and is very much the everyday supermarket.
The only issue in this store that I noticed is the lighting. In an attempt to keep the lighting focused and premium-feeling, some areas of the store are rather dark. You can see the dark spots in the aisles here. (That's the risk of having a darker color scheme and focused lighting like this.)
The preliminary response I've seen online to this store is quite strong, although it does sound like it's slightly more expensive than the SuperFresh. Without having done any comparison myself, I can't say for sure one way or another.
Frozen foods begin on the back wall, which as you can see here is angled, and continue down the last aisle opposite dairy.
The fixtures here are brand-new, and even they feel premium, like these freezer cases with bigger glass panels and less trim.
A look at the front-end...
...and looking back in the other direction. The custom shelving built around the registers is a nice touch, too. The design of this store was very thoughtful.
In the front part of the store, there's also a seating area and indoor cart storage.
This is a spectacular new store, and it's one of the best-designed stores I've seen recently. The amount of selection packed into a space under 10,000 square feet is incredible, too. Here's a look at this weekend's other posts!
Previous Tenants: Bohack > Rite Aid
Cooperative: Associated Supermarket Group
Location: 7 Madison St, Manhattan, NY
Photographed: February 27, 2026
You enter to an extremely well-appointed grand aisle on the left side of the store with floral and a self-serve coffee bar at the front, produce behind that, and then a series of service counters at the back. There's a carving station for freshly roasted meats, a service deli of course, a sushi bar, and a number of prepared foods options. Not service counters, but there's also dedicated cheese and hot food/salad bar areas, along with (gasp!) an in-store bakery. Meats are on the back wall, with frozen and dairy on the right side of the store.
Looking back up towards the front of the grand aisle...
Comments
Post a Comment